Hounded by Hair
by Synthaesium
Summary: When the Shiratsuyus receive their second remodel, they are faced with a rather odd and slightly worrying problem. Two-shot, written for a friend.
1. Shigure and Yuudachi

A/N: I have strange friends. Thanks very much to everyone who helped me with beta-ing this, and to everyone about to leave a review here.

Shigure stared at the mirror. Once again, she scrutinised her reflection. Silken hair the colour of the darkest chocolate framed wide sapphire blue eyes and a youthful face that belied her true maturity and spirit. As a shipgirl, she was absolutely stunning, capable of turning heads wherever she went. Being a reincarnated ship-spirit also meant that she could perform spectacular physical feats nobody would expect from a girl of her stature.

However, none of her strength or experience could help her in her current predicament, because the problem she currently faced was not one she could solve with simple brute force.

Two tufts of hair proudly stuck up on either side of her head. Shigure closed her eyes and pressed them down, hoping that magically, mysteriously, they would stay down this time. Alas, as she let go and opened her eyes, they bounced back up into position, defying her once more.

They'd been there since she completed her second refitting last night. She had tried to push them down then, but it obviously hadn't worked. A confused Akashi suggested that it could just be a terrible case of bed hair, advice which she took after spending a few minutes trying to force them down, only to have them spring right back up again.

"Nothing seems to work, poi…" sighed Yuudachi from beside her. "It's almost time for breakfast, too…"

Shigure could only agree with her sister. They had tried combs, water, hair gel, blasting the offending hair with a hair dryer, more water, more hair gel, and blasting the hair for even longer. But their hair flaps had resolutely defeated every one of their attempts to tamp them down.

"Oh well!" Yuudachi suddenly exclaimed as she stood up and turned to leave. "It's just a little hair!"

"Wha-" blurted Shigure, surprised by her sister's sudden burst of energy. "But I can't show myself to the Admiral looking like this!"

"It'll be fine, poi! He's pretty cool, I'm sure he won't mind your hair being a little messier than usual! Besides, we gotta get food! Otherwise, we might miss out and then we won't get anything and then we'll be hungry during morning drills until lunch, poi!"

"But-!"

"No buts, poi!"

Shigure could do nothing but submit to Yuudachi's energy as she was somewhat unceremoniously dragged out of their room.

 _A few hours later..._

"Admiral, here are the reports for TorpRon One's exercises today." Shigure said as she entered the Admiral's office, closing the door behind her.

"He hasn't said anything about my hair yet," thought Shigure as she crossed the distance from the door to the Admiral's desk. 'That's pretty strange, since he's usually pretty observ-"

"You're looking fidgety today," said the Admiral, interrupting her thoughts as he raised his head from yet another report to look at her.

"What?" She jumped, clutching the stack of paper closer to her chest. "N-no, I'm fine!"

"Is it because of your hair?"

She froze, her breath catching in her throat as she realised that her game was up.

"Uh… When did you notice?"

"Since this morning actually. I noticed the moment you walked in here. If you're worried about your hair, don't be. It's not as bad as you think. In fact, if you ask me…"

The Admiral lowered his voice to a near whisper, and leaned over his desk, closer to his secretary. Shigure nervously held her breath, not sure of what to expect.

"They look cute on you."

"Ah-!" Shigure nearly lost her grip on the reports she held as she blushed redder than the tips of her Type-93 torpedoes. Of all the possibilities that had run through her mind, being called cute was somehow not one of them! "This is all for now, so I'll take my leave!"

With a quick bow, Shigure dumped the stack of reports on the Admiral's desk and hurried to leave the office, still blushing deeply and very much conscious of her Admiral chuckling at her embarrassment.

 _Next morning…_

"Eh, you're not going to try to do something about your hair, poi?" Yuudachi curiously asked as Shigure was about to leave the room. "You seemed pretty worried about it yesterday, poi."

"Well, it's like you said. It's just hair, right?" Shigure shrugged. "Nobody really noticed yesterday anyway. Except for the Admiral."

"Except for?" _Now_ Yuudachi was curious. She could've sworn she heard her sister say something...

"Huh?" Shigure quickly turned away from Yuudachi to hide her reddening cheeks, trying to pass off the movement as simply leaving the room. "It's nothing. Come on, let's get breakfast or we might be late."

"Wai-wait up, poi!"

As Yuudachi hurried after her, Shigure fervently hoped that her sister would leave this topic alone. If Yuudachi ever got to the bottom of this, she wasn't sure if she could handle the sisterly ribbing that was sure to come.


	2. Kawakaze

"Sis, are you sure these are supposed to be here?" Kawakaze's voice was laced with irritation as she turned away from the mirror she was looking at to face her sisters while reaching up to touch the offending articles: two tufts of hair that were sticking up on either side of her head.

Shigure and Yuudachi shared a collective sigh. They both knew exactly what was going to happen the moment they heard that Kawakaze was due to receive her second remodelling, and despite their best efforts, she still refused to accept that there was nothing she could do about the hair flaps.

Not like they blamed her. After all, they hadn't taken well to having two clumps of hair defy every one of their attempts to have a normal hairstyle either.

"Yes, they are." said Shigure, with the air of a person trying to explain a particularly difficult topic to a child.

"There's nothing you can do about them. Believe me when I say we tried, poi." added Yuudachi. "When we got our second remodels we sat here for almost an hour and we still couldn't do anything about them, poi!"

Kawakaze sighed, turning back to the mirror and scrutinising her appearance once more. "This is totally going to ruin my hairstyle, isn't it?"

"It's not so bad. In fact, some people even said they look pretty cute." offered Shigure as she absentmindedly touched her own hair flaps.

"'Some people?' By that, you mean the Admiral, right?"

"Uh, well…" Shigure flushed slightly. "Nobody else noticed…"

"That's just because he's a cool guy who tries to keep everyone's spirits up. No way he'd say something that'd come anywhere close to depressing you without a good reason."

Before Shigure could protest, Yuudachi suddenly stood up.

"It's almost 0700, poi! We gotta get going else we're going to be late for breakfast!"

With those parting words, she hurried out of the room.

"What?" exclaimed Kawakaze as she turned to check the desk clock. To her horror, its screen proudly announced that it indeed was almost seven A.M. "Forget this, sis! We gotta move!"

As Shigure was hustled out of the room by her sister, she couldn't help but feel an odd sense of déjà vu.

Later, around 1130 the same day…

"Admiral! Hey, Admiral!"

The Admiral turned as a black, white and red blur bounced up beside him.

"You seem to come down here a lot, huh?" grinned Kawakaze, falling into step with the Admiral as they both left the docks.

"Only when I can spare the time. With things going the way they are, I don't get to watch you girls practice that much anymore."

"Ah, don't worry about it! I can assure you that everyone's getting better and better by the day! We'll definitely send the Abyssals packing the next time we sortie!"

"Confidence is all well and good, but make sure you keep your wits about you in the field."

Despite his words of caution, Kawakaze's boldness brought a small smile to the Admiral's face. It was always interesting to see how sister ships were different from each other. While all three remodeled Shiratsuyus carried that same confidence, Yuudachi and Kawakaze were similar in that they were both energetic and lively. Their presence rallied those around them with their can-do attitude. Shigure was quieter but no less secure in her own abilities, keeping her squadmates' morale up with her nerve and experience.

"By the way, Admiral, I've been meaning to ask you something." Kawakaze turned to look at him, transfixing him with her yellow eyes. Her earlier cheer vanished, temporarily hidden under a sudden surge of seriousness.

"How do you think these look on me?" She asked as she gestured towards her two stubborn hair flaps.

Inwardly, the Admiral sighed. He had a feeling this was going to happen, what with her sister's reactions to her own hair flaps. There was no way he could pull the same trick that he pulled on Shigure. Admittedly, he did mean it that one time. As Kawakaze's golden gaze intensified, he was willing to bet that even if he tried, she would simply push harder.

Well, the truth was the truth. In a situation like this, there wasn't really a reason to hide it.

"They make you look fierce, actually."

"Eh?" Kawakaze raised an eyebrow, dissipating her intense stare in an instant. "What do you mean by that?"

"When you fight, they make you look a little like a warhound. Fierce and unyielding," answered the Admiral. "But honestly, you don't need to worry about them. Your sisters did, and they're doing just fine, aren't they?"

"Ah… I guess you're right. A girl's gotta take care of her appearance, that's all!" Just like that, another grin split Kawakaze's youthful face. "Anyway, I'll catch you later! I'm hungry after practice, so I'm off to get some food!"

She took off again in a burst of crimson, again leaving the Admiral with a small smile on his face.

"Sometimes, it's nice to have a remainder that they really are girls when they're not being ships."

The next day, around 0645…

"Even without wasting time on hair flaps, doing up your hair is still really time-consuming, poi…" murmured Yuudachi as she finally finished braiding Kawakaze's hair.

"It really is…" agreed Shigure as she stood up, stretching like a cat.

"Sorry about that, but I've gotta look good, you know?" apologised Kawakaze. "The hair flaps look better than I thought, too! Thanks a lot, sis!"

"Ha! I knew you'd give in eventually, poi!"

"Well, it's not like I can do anything about it, right?"

Shigure suppressed a chuckle as she watched her sisters go at each other. They were sometimes a handful, sure, but they were her younger sisters, and she wouldn't trade them for the world.


End file.
